RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Marcel Proust (1871-1922): reassessment of his asthma and other maladies JF European Respiratory Journal JO Eur Respir J FD European Respiratory Society SP 958 OP 960 VO 15 IS 5 A1 Sharma, OP YR 2000 UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/15/5/958.abstract AB Marcel Proust endured severe allergies and bronchial asthma from early childhood. Those who suffer from the frightening and recurrent pangs of asthma often become dependent on their parents particularly mother; Proust was no exception. In his time asthma was poorly understood by physicians who considered the illness to be a type of hysteria. Decades later, we now understand that the severe, poorly controlled, suffocating episodes of asthma were responsible for the complex persona that Marcel Proust had assumed.